Aderholt goes to Syria

Rep. Robert Aderholt of Haleyville was one of three GOP congressmen to spend the weekend in Damascus, despite President Bush's insistence that President Assad doesn't deserve the attention.

It is reminiscent of former Rep. Earl Hilliard's trip to Libya back in 1997, a controversial excursion to a place that was off limits to American travelers.

But the two are not exactly comparable.

First, Hilliard's was a solo trip that did not have the blessing of the State Department. He did not publicly share his itinerary, saying only that he was trying to convince Libya to surrender two suspects in the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Scotland. The trip was investigated but he was cleared of wrongdoing because he didn't use his passport to enter the country. Nevertheless, it was a factor when Rep. Artur Davis beat him in 2002 with the backing of the pro-Israel community.

Aderholt, on the other hand, was part of an official congressional delegation trying to follow the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group for more diplomacy in the region. The White House has dug in its heels on even talking to Assad about Syria's allowance of fighters to infiltrate Iraq and its interference in Lebanon, among other things. But the congressional delegations, including a separate one led by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, see no harm in opening up a line of communication, and the State Department helped prepare them for their meetings.

Aderholt was due back in the U.S. early this morning, and I plan to talk to him today about the trip.